Dragoon rammer pulling balls out?

[moose30273]

Howdy.
Just got home with a Uberti 1st Model Dragoon. Using .457 diameter balls and 50 grains of powder, I can get the ball, wad and powder in the cylinder. However when I really "lean" on the loading lever, (cause it is a cylinder full) the balls seem to swage up into the end of it and pull out of the chamber. It looks like I could simply take a little metal off the end of the lever and it would remove the sharp end and this might fix the problem. Course I could probably drop my powder charge or use grease instead of a wad. But why?

 

[Zonie]

The best reason I can think of to answer "why" is so you don't break your loading lever. :hmm:

IMO, one should always leave enough room in the chamber so that the ball can be easily seated below the face of the cylinder.

The little extra powder won't be noticed and the gun will live a lot longer without the need to replace loading levers.

 

[moose30273]

Zonie, voice of reason go away! About 45 grains of powder shot pretty well and everything fit in the cylinder. I did touch up the end of the loading lever a little and have had no problems loading or with sticking balls. As always, the gun is more accurate than I am.

 

[phoenix511]

Like Zonie said:

Voice of reason. Don't try to cram so much powder the ball can't be seated without bending the loading rod. Compress powder more... probably not much.

You are working with technology of 150 years ago. You can't make these into 21st century magnums.

Enjoy these pistols for what they are.

 

[Jim Langel]

I put some JB Weld in the end of the rammer and molded it to fit the ball. Works great

 

[nkbj]

Be sure to grease the ball a little when molding the JB Weld.